MYSTERIOUS TEMPLES OF THE JUNGLE 



The Prehistoric Ruins of Guatemala 



By W. F. Saxds 

 FoKMKRLv American- ]\Iixister to Guatemala 



WITH the opening of the Ouiri- 

 gua ruins in Guatemala a most 

 important addition is being 

 made to the material now available for 

 study of the races which once occupied 

 the low, hot coast land between Copan, 

 in Honduras, through the Guatemala 

 littoral, Peten, and Ouintana Roo to 

 Yucatan. 



Master races they were as were once 

 the Brahmans in Indo-China. They con- 

 quered in easy battle the fever-ridden 

 natives, and lived thenceforth upon the 

 country and its population. 



They taught them nothing of their 

 higher civilization, but ground them back 

 to the earth, until inbreeding, idleness, 

 and fever took their toll, and in their 

 turn they were overthrown and perished, 

 leaving nothing but the elaborate monu- 

 ments and massive buildings which, cov- 

 ered with the mould of centuries of quick 

 springing and quick decaying tropical 

 forest, form the "Indian mounds" so 

 plentiful in this region. 



A RACE OF PRIESTLY CONQUERORS 



The theory of an alien sacerdotal aris- 

 tocracy, claiming divine descent because 

 of superior development, and ruling an 

 untutored conquered race, while it offers 

 no suggestion as to origin, may at least 

 explain why no memory of their rule 

 remains among the inhabitants of these 

 regions today. Knowledge of every kind 

 was kept from the subject races, and with 

 the downfall the slave fled from the an- 

 cient holy places, and the symbols of ar- 

 rogance, cruelty, and power were shimned 

 for centuries as an abomination. 



It is not necessary to hold with Bras- 

 seur de Bourbourg that all these coun- 

 tries (the "Hinterland" of .\tlantis) were 

 submerged when the island-continent was 

 destroyed, although his theory is im- 

 mensely attractive, and that after remain- 

 ing under the sea for an unknown period 

 they rose once more and were peopled 

 from the highlands. 



It is simpler to imagine, as long as we 

 have nothing definite to go on and one 

 man's tale is as good as another's, that 

 some such catastrophe took place as is 

 so charmingly suggested in Sir Hugh 

 Clifford's "Tragedy of Angkor," and that 

 the degenerate rulers of the coast were 

 shown suddenly to their subjects by some 

 attack of the hardier mountain tribes to 

 be no longer irresistible, no longer divine, 

 but only very feeble men. and so were 

 wiped out as utterly and effectually as 

 would have been the first weak settlement 

 on our own shores without succor from 

 the mother country. 



AN ENVOY WHO FAILED TO FIND HIS GOAL 



Perhaps none of the ruins of America 

 is more accessible now to Americans 

 than those of Quirigua; and yet. though 

 frequently visited, they are among the 

 least known. 



John Stevens, in his gossipy "Travels 

 in Central America, etc.," in 1839, has 

 left an excellent account of both Quirigua 

 and its neighbor. Copan, during his wan- 

 derings in search of a Federal govern- 

 ment sufficiently stable to receive his cre- 

 dentials as American Minister. 



Failing in the object of his official mis- 

 sion, he returned north through the 

 Guatemalan highlands, visiting also the 

 ruined cities of Quiche, and so up the 

 ridge of the Cordillera, through Chiapas 

 to Palenque and down to Chichcn. Itza. 

 and Uxmal. in Yucatan — a wonderfully 

 beautiful journey and not in any way 

 difficult for a saddle-hardened rider. 



Stevens left a valuable record ; but his 

 real treasure (aside from the personal 

 reminiscence of the astonishing Carrera, 

 who from a particularly brutal swineherd 

 became a demi-god and one of the ablest 

 rulers Guatemala has known) is the 

 series of admirable drawings by Cather- 

 wood, who accompanied him. of all the 

 monuments in both Quirigua and Copan, 

 which remain unexcelled even by pho- 

 tography. 



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